The institution of marriage is in danger of becoming a privilege of middle and upper classes, Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears warned a group of 150 gathered in the University of Georgia Chapel on Thursday.

Nearly a third of births in the United States now are to unmarried mothers, and the rates are especially high for Hispanic women - 76 percent - and African American women, at 70 percent, said Sears, who delivered UGA's annual Holmes-Hunter Lecture. The lecture is named for UGA's first black students, Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Hamilton Holmes.

Family fragmentation happens not just because many babies are born out of wedlock, but because so many marriages end in divorce, she said.

Children in single-parent homes are more likely to grow up in poverty, more likely to fall prey to drugs and more likely to be exposed to family violence, said Sears, who will step down as chief justice in June.

Many single parents work hard to raise decent, successful children, said Sears, herself briefly a single mother after her first marriage ended in divorce.

But, quoting a Washington Post columnist, she said family breakdown is the source of most of the ills of American society.

Judges see the bitter fruit of family disintegration in their courts, she said.

More than 60 percent of cases in Georgia superior courts deal with family and children issues such as divorce, custody and child support, she said - more than all the other cases combined, including felony crimes.

Family and children cases only were 15 percent of the judicial workload when Sears first became a judge, she said.

The focus of marriage has changed from rearing children to meeting the needs of the adults, Sears said, calling for Americans to put children at the heart of marriage.

Courts and society should continue to protect children, but also should work to strengthen the institution of marriage, said Sears.

"I believe that building a viable, strong marriage culture is equally legitimate," she said.

The anti-smoking movement changed American attitudes, according to Sears. So did the civil rights movement, which paved the way for Sears to speak at UGA as the chief justice of Georgia's highest court, she said.

"That's why I know that hope exists," she said.

The legality of gay marriage also is better decided by legislatures, not courts, Sears said in a question-and-answer period after her talk. She said she agrees with former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who shared his thoughts on gay marriage while he was on the UGA campus Tuesday.

"It's better if the laws come from the legislature," and courts should step in only as a last resort, Sears said.

Sears, 53, left the Atlanta law firm Alston & Bird in 1985, when then-Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young appointed her to the city's traffic courts. She was elected to the Superior Court of Fulton County in 1988, and at 36 was the youngest person ever to serve on the Georgia Supreme Court and its first woman when Zell Miller appointed her in 1992. She became chief justice in 2005 - and will teach in UGA's law school in the upcoming academic year, said UGA President Michael Adams.

She has been mentioned frequently in published accounts as a top candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court if a seat is vacated during President Obama's administration, though some observers are skeptical.

"I think it would be a long shot," said UGA political analyst Charles Bullock, partly because the high court already has one Georgian - Clarence Thomas. Supreme Court nominees also are more likely to come from federal appellate courts than state courts, he said.